Who’s who at the TSE in the trial of actions against Bolsonaro – 10/10/2023 – Power

Starting this Tuesday (10), the TSE (Superior Electoral Court) will judge three more actions involving conduct adopted by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in last year’s electoral campaign.

Last June, by 5 votes to 2, the court declared Bolsonaro ineligible for eight years, due to attacks and lies against the electoral system in a meeting with ambassadors.

Now, the Electoral Attorney General’s Office, in an opinion signed by the deputy attorney general, Paulo Gonet, has expressed its rejection of the actions. Any conviction, however, would not change the period of ineligibility.

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WHO IS WHO AT TSE

Alexandre de Moraes
Rapporteur of the STF investigations that target Bolsonaro, he became the former president’s main executioner in the Brazilian Judiciary. Doctor of law from USP and professor at the institution, he was appointed to the Supreme Court by former president Michel Temer (MDB) in 2017. Previously, he was Minister of Justice, and secretary of both the state and the City of São Paulo. He is president of the TSE and considered the most influential minister on the electoral court today.

Benedito Gonçalves
Rapporteur of the action that made Bolsonaro ineligible, he is inspector general of the Electoral Court and also minister of the STJ (Superior Court of Justice). He has been a career judge since 1988. He was appointed to the STJ by President Lula in 2008. To this day, he maintains a close relationship with the Chief Executive and other PT leaders.

Carmen Lucia
With a master’s degree in law from UFMG, she has been a Supreme Court minister since 2006, when she was appointed to the court by President Lula. The second woman to take a seat at the top of the Judiciary in the country’s history, she had the support of then minister Sepúlveda Pertence to be chosen by the PT member. She voted in favor of Lava Jato and against the interests of the PT in several trials. At the beginning of 2021, however, she changed her vote to declare the partiality of former judge Sergio Moro in the conduct of cases against Lula.

Kassio Nunes Marques
He was appointed to the STF by Bolsonaro in 2020 and is one of the most loyal men to the former president in the Brazilian Judiciary. Previously, he was a federal judge at the TRF-1 (Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region) and the TRE-PI (Regional Electoral Court of Piauí). When he was nominated for the Supreme Court, he was campaigning for a place on the STJ. However, he fell into the former president’s favor and was elevated to one of the 11 seats on the country’s most important court. He has a master’s degree from the Autonomous University of Lisbon and a doctorate from the University of Salamanca.

Raul Araújo
Minister of the STJ since 2010, he has been a lawyer, prosecutor, judge and attorney for the state of Ceará. Unlike Benedito, he tends to adopt a more conservative bias in judgments and is closer to the conservative political field. He is seen by Bolsonaro’s allies as one of the possible votes in favor of the former president in the action that could make him ineligible. In the 2022 elections, he made the decision that banned political demonstrations by artists at the Lollapalooza music festival after singer Pabllo Vittar raised a flag for then-candidate Lula during the show.

André Ramos Tavares
He occupies one of the seats in the TSE aimed at the legal profession. He has a master’s and doctorate from PUC-SP and was a member of the Presidency’s Public Ethics Commission between 2018 and 2021. He was appointed substitute minister of the court by Bolsonaro and a full member of the court by Lula. He is seen as a man of Alexandre de Moraes’ trust and who should follow the same line as the president of the court in the former president’s trial.

Floriano de Azevedo Marques
PhD in law and former director of the USP law school, he also occupies a chair reserved for lawyers at the TSE. He arrived at court thanks to the support of Alexandre de Moraes, with whom he is friends. There was pressure from the female wing of the PT to appoint a woman to the position, but Lula prioritized the name supported by Moraes.